What Happens If 10 ml Of Elemental Mercury Is Injected Intravenously

In a photo from The New England Journal of Medicine, elemental mercury accumulated in a woman’s lungs after she attempted suicide by injecting 10 ml (135 g) intravenously. She arrived at the emergency room with rapid breathing, a dry cough, and bloody mucus. The woman recovered from the ordeal and after a 10 month follow-up, she was deemed healthy with no renal, gastrointestinal, or neurological symptoms.

As the image description states, “The absence of clinical toxicity in this patient illustrates the differences in the acute and chronic effects of exposure to elemental mercury, inorganic mercury, and organic mercury. Inorganic and organic mercury are much more toxic than elemental mercury; for example, a dose of 400 mg of mercury in the form of dimethylmercury is usually lethal.”